June 30, Kathmandu – The US Supreme Court has rejected former President Donald Trump’s attempt to end birthright citizenship in America through an executive order. The court reaffirmed a century-old legal tradition and constitutional practice that grants automatic US citizenship to children born in the country. Trump had sought to uphold the order he issued on his first day in office. During the oral arguments, he became the first sitting US president to participate in such a proceedings.
Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the decision, “Citizenship is the right to claim the rights—to partake freely in our political community. The framers of the Fourteenth Amendment extended this promise to every person born on this soil. Today, we maintain that promise.” Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, and Samuel Alito dissented from the ruling. Thomas and Gorsuch argued that neither the Constitution nor federal law guarantees automatic citizenship to children born to non-permanent residents in the United States.
The Trump administration had claimed that children born in the US to immigrants living unlawfully, tourists, or foreign students should not qualify for citizenship under the Fourteenth Amendment. This amendment was enacted in 1868 after the Civil War to secure the legal status of former slaves and their descendants. Immigration rights activists and civil liberties groups opposing this policy warned that millions of children born each year to non-citizen parents would be affected and that ending citizenship certification based solely on birth certificates would create significant administrative challenges.
